Dr. Paul Burkimsher grew up in the North of England. He very nearly took up a career in electronics but then discovered programming. Having finished 'A'-levels at age 16, he went straight off to university to study Computer Science. He only applied to one university, Brunel, attracted by its 4 year "sandwich" degree course including industrial training placements.
Whilst an undergraduate, he spent six months at Cern, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, in Geneva, Switzerland. After graduation he worked for the UK Science Research Council in Oxfordshire before moving back "up North" to Manchester University. At UMIST he gained his MSc. and PhD., researching Functional Language implementation on one of the earliest experimental parallel MIMD computers (CYBA-M). He says his PhD. is the hardest thing he has ever done.
Immediately after the PhD. thesis was accepted he set off around the world, making his first visit to New Zealand. He then took up permanent employment at Cern and became occupied in writing software for data acquisition systems (including EMU) and in the GP-MIMD massively parallel machine research project. In October 1985 the World Bank sponsored him for a one month lectureship at University of Wuhan in The People's Republic of China. In 1994 he was invited to lecture for an academic year at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
His present work at Cern in IT Division, CO (Controls) Group, involves him in writing Detector Control Systems for physics experiments.
Paul has a deep Christian faith and advises "Better mean what you pray. You might get 'Yes' for an answer."
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This page last updated by Paul Burkimsher on 30 July 1998.